EDITORIALE / Igor Pelgreffi, Massimiliano Badino, Ubaldo Fadini /
Algorithm: Genealogy, Theory, Critique
The paper presents the scientific setting of the monographic issue Algorithm. Genealogy, theory, critique. Actually, today’s digital society poses the urgency of which could be the suitable theoretical-philosophical tools for a consistent reflection on the theme of the widespread diffusion of algorithms in our historical-social world. The approach of the articles of the issue is twofold. One concerns the analysis of the history of the concept of algorithm, and therefore fits into the vein of the history of ideas and at the same time, into the folds of epistemological questions that the algorithm poses within mathematical and information theories, understood in their historical evolution. The other is more directly related to the ethical and political consequences of the extensive application of algorithms in individual and social life. In the first aspect, continuity and discontinuity are shown with respect to references such as Turing or Babbage, but also to the origins of the universal calculus in Leibniz and in Modern Philosophy as well. In the second, the analyses place the topics within the framework of human-machine ethical dilemmas, as well as international guidelines on AI ethics. Here therefore a series of open questions are developed ranging from artificial empathy linked to algorithms or the future role of Machine Learning, up to the critique of ‘platform capitalism’, here with references to the most up-to-date critical thinking, such as Hardt, Zuboff, Ciccarelli, also by re-actualizing Marx’s positions on the replacement of man by the intelligent machines.
